This week’s Shadowhunters had some interesting developments. It turns out that The Institute was in need of a new management, at least in the eyes of The Clave, especially due to the Lightwood family. In order to fix that problem they sent in Lydia Branwell. Her first impression stood out, but she quickly became less interesting.
Lydia’s entrance was surely one for the books. Walking into The Institute as their top enemy Valentine was definitely a unique strategy to get their attention. I personally thought it was a dumb idea since all the Shadowhunters were suppose to be highly trained. Turned out I was wrong because the only one that attacked was Alec and Lydia instantly caught his arrow. After scolding them on how their reaction time sucked she stated how she was now in charge. The others wanted to disagree, but the orders came from up high. It actions like those that display how much power The Clave has over The Institute.
Within those couple minutes we also learn that Lydia is not a fan of Jace and is apparently a distant cousin of Clary. It would be interesting to see if those details will come into play in the future. The rest of her screen time was spent mostly around Alec. For some reason in those moments she turned soft. It made sense only for the single moment where she leveled with Alec about her parents trying to force her to marry to someone that she wasn’t interested in. After that her softer demeanor felt out of place. Maybe her character needs to figure out how comfortable she wants to be around everyone.
Some of the creatures that were a little too comfortable with people this episode were Forsaken. These monsters ended up being some of the people that Valentine gave runes to a couple episodes ago. It turns out that Valentine knows that Clary has the cup and that Luke was protecting her. Since he hates Luke he sent one of the Forsaken to the Jade Wolf. It took at least five werewolves to take that thing down. The other Forsaken was sent to The Institute. Apparently since it had angel blood within its body it was able to enter with no problems. Hodge found this one and the two of them battled. If it wasn’t for Alec’s short interference then Hodge might have not survived. This probably won’t be the last we see of these creatures, and they’re obviously something the Shadowhunters should watch out for.
The majority of the episode had to due with Clary and Simon. After Camille’s attack on him he turned into a fletchling, which gave Clary only two options: either she could put a stake through his heart and let him die or she could bury him and let him turn into a vampire. Neither choice seemed more obvious. It was engaging to see Clary’s dilemma. Having to decide the fate of her best friend was clearly eating her up inside and she wasn’t sure what was the best option. She even asked Luke and he told her that she had to choose with Simon’s best interest in mind. There was even a small flashback of when Luke had to decide for himself whether or not he wanted to continue living as a werewolf. In the end Clary chose to turn Simon into a vampire. Once he emerged, he was upset and ran away. In time maybe he can forgive his best friend and learn to accept his new life. In the same way, hopefully Clary will forgive herself for making that decision and will accept her “new” best friend.
Side Notes: The vampires turned on Camille too quickly. That proposal felt odd. The Institute needs to amp up their security and Shadowhunters.
6/10
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Shadowhunters airs 9/8c on Freeform
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